When in Doubt...Get out

What you need to know: If it doesn't feel right, it's not. Liquidate and move on.

Chances are, when you become accustomed to a specific niche, you'll get a feel for how the prices operate on a daily or weekly basis. However, odd things do start to happen. If you begin to notice that prices are reaching increasingly unusually high levels for no apparent reason, it may be a sign that it's time to liquidate and move away from that item.

Why? Competition. Successful merchanting is based on their being legitimate demand for an item. If merchants are just selling to each other, nothing is being taken out of the market, and the prices are needlessly increasing (think wall street housing crisis, banks were just selling each other stuff at higher and higher prices). If the item you're merchanting starts to hit higher lows (the price does not decrease as much during its night-day cycle), chances are there's other merchants in your neighborhood buying out the market. While you may see some additional profit from the momentum, eventually the house of cards will collapse and you will be stuck with a pile of goods not worth as much as you paid for it. Remember rule #1.